birdwatching blogs

Excursion for Bean Geese observing. Day was sunny and very pleasure though windy. I first time (!) full rounded Sorbulak lake. The flocks of Bean Geese we observed many times but from a far of course. Geese are very cautious birds and don’t make possible to close to photoshoot distance. [...... read more ]

I looked for the Barred Warblers very intensively but didn’t find any one. But I heard and saw not less than one and half dozen Lesser Whitethroats in different places. Most of birds were Hooded Crows, Rooks, Mynahs. In the thick brush I twice saw flocks of Black-throated Thrushes; Bramblings fed on the yellow larch trees. No unusual birds. [...... read more ]

Hooded Crows and Mynahs actively ate the berries on the trees. Bramblings foraged on the ground under the thujas. In three places I noticed Lesser Whitethroats. I will watch how long Whitethroats will be on the Square. So far they do not eat the berries but seek out insects on the branches. [...... read more ]

Once again we visited Big Almaty lake for searching Ibisbill. Today's visit was successful, we observed Ibisbill though we did not watched bird detailed because bird flew up the river canyon. The great impression was the large flock of Great Cormorants flew more likely from Sorbulak to Issyk-Kul. Birds flew against the wind rising to an altitudes more than 4 km to overcome the pass. In juniper thickets we saw many Brown Accentors, several Black-throated Accentors, Rock Buntings and White-browed Tit-Warblers. Birds came to sounds despite the non-breeding season. Also I need to note the Alpine Accentor on rocks and the record of White Wagtail at the mouth of the river (very uncommon later observation). At evening in Raptors Sanctuary we watched the show, we loved it. [...... read more ]

Overcast day. On bushes with berries and on fall leaves there were a lot of birds, mostly Mynahs, Hooded Crows and Blackbirds. Hundreds of Mynahs and Crows, dozens of Blackbirds. Noticed the flock of 4 Black-throated Thrushes. Wonderful shot, I ran into the pair of Eversmann’s Redstart directly in same place when I photographed male Redstart almost one year ago. Also I watched Lesser Whitethroat. [...... read more ]

Tour of two birds. We planned to find Ibisbill on Almaty lake and Solitary Snipe in Ozernoe gorge. To Almaty lake we arrived very early, sun was behind the ridge. After sun lighted all lake vicinity we moved to searching of Ibisbill. Vassily Fedorenko ran into one flying out bird but this moment remained the only one of Ibisbill observations. Although in this season the number of Ibisbills should have been more, two adult birds and brood. We watched one Great Grey Shrike in boulder bed, Golden Eagle in the sky, White-bellied Dipper on the water, Eversmann’s Redstarts, Black-throated Accentors in spruce forest, Chaffinches, Carrion Crows and Magpies on open areas. Unfortunately we didn’t find Solitary Snipe too. [...... read more ]

We finished third out of four, but the slogan of our competition as on Olympic Games is “The Games themselves are better than the race and the prize”, therefore I was pleased. 78 species of birds were photographed by all participants, it is pretty good result to this season of year. Below is a list of birds consisted birds were saw / photographed by our group plus the most interesting of birds were shot by other competitors. [...... read more ]

Overcast day. Outdoor testing of tele-objective lens before the competition. Lens failed the test. Despite the apparent advantage (1300mm focus) it loses by reason of the weak lens speed, and the absence of auto-focus and image stabilizer. The interesting one was Quail which flushed under my legs and I even spotted its grounded place, but... I didn’t find it despite my diligence. In Ozernoe gorge on familiar site I ran into the Solitary Snipe but didn’t shoot it because Snipe flew out very quickly. Buckthorn in the gorge is a lot, but the birds are still not noticed; in the bushes I saw one Blackbird only. [...... read more ]